NHS: Access to Treatments

Debate between Lord Laming and Lord Kamall

Wednesday 7th September 2022 Lords Chamber

[Lord Laming (CB)]

My Lords, some of the conversations that we have had show that the availability of services in the NHS depends to a large degree on efficient access to social care provision. Could the Minister tell the House what the Government are doing to sort out the social care problem in this country, which is getting worse?

[Lord Kamall (Con)]

The noble Lord is absolutely right. There are a number of issues to do with social care. One of the reasons, frankly, is that it has been treated for far too long as a Cinderella service. One of the things we are doing is registration—there is a debate in the care community about whether it should be a voluntary or compulsory register; it is voluntary to start—to make sure that we really understand the sector. No one really has an overall picture of the care sector, and there is a range of different qualifications, which are quite often inconsistent. If we can get all that together, understand what is out there and understand the qualifications, we can make it a proper vocation and career for people. That is what we are doing at the moment.

Integrated Care Boards

Debate between Lord Laming and Lord Kamall

Monday 5th September 2022 Lords Chamber

[Lord Kamall (Con)]

My noble friend makes a really important point on this: if you look at the structure at the local level, you will see the ICBs, but they are in partnership with civil society organisations and others to form the ICP. The integrated care boards and integrated care partnerships together comprise the integrated care system locally. When looking at local health needs and the health of populations, particularly in deprived areas, it is really important that we work with local charities and civil society organisations; they are quite often trusted more by local people than professionals.

[Lord Laming (CB)]

My Lords, I know the Minister agrees that the NHS depends very heavily on efficient and effective social care services being available to it. Could the Minister tell the House whether he is satisfied that, throughout the country, local social care services will be involved in these new arrangements from the outset and as equal partners?

[Lord Kamall (Con)]

During the debate on the Health and Care Bill, which became the Health and Care Act, one of the things on which we agreed across the House was that each integrated care board should have the appropriate mix of skills. I think that was thanks to an amendment by the Liberal Democrats. This particular issue shows that we need to ensure that we are considering all the important aspects of health. One of the things that will be very important is the parity of mental health with physical health. All these issues will be considered at the local partnership level.

NHS: Abuse of Nurses

Debate between Lord Laming and Lord Kamall

Tuesday 5th April 2022 Lords Chamber

[Lord Kamall (Con)]

I hope the noble Baroness will appreciate that I have laid out some of the initiatives that are taking place, and which are not only trying to prevent abuses against members of staff and nursing staff but supporting staff to de-escalate them. On well-being and getting more nurses, the Government are committed to continuing to grow the NHS workforce. We are still committed to the figure of 50,000 more nurses and to putting the NHS on a trajectory towards a sustainable long-term supply in the future. We are working on a number of well-being schemes to ensure that nurses are supported and feel safer and more willing to stay in service.

[Lord Laming (CB)]

My Lords, does the Minister agree that sometimes, nurses find themselves in this difficult situation because, as the most junior staff, they are required to give unwelcome messages about the limitations of resources? There are a lot of managers in the health service, but they put nurses forward to give that unwelcome message to patients and their relatives. Can the Minister see whether there are better ways to protect the most junior staff in the organisation?

[Lord Kamall (Con)]

I must admit that I was not aware of that, but I will take it back to the department to investigate and will write to the noble Lord. We have been looking at how to train staff not only to deal with abusers but to handle different situations and to de-escalate. There are also a number of staff health and well-being support programmes, including website session support lines, certain apps, well-being seminars and coaching seminars.

NHS: Pre-pandemic Facility Levels

Debate between Lord Laming and Lord Kamall

Tuesday 29th March 2022 Lords Chamber

[Lord Kamall (Con)]

I thank my noble friend for those questions and will try to answer as many of them as I can. We are aware that this idea of returning to normal is patchy in different parts of the country. Some people have told me that visiting their GP or a hospital is fine, while others have had real trouble. Therefore, when these issues come up, I hope that noble Lords and others make us aware, so that we can ask the NHS what is happening. It is clearly an issue of capacity, but also, some people are trying to get face-to-face appointments with their GPs, while some practices are trying to move towards a technology-based service offering. I am aware of that. GP appointments are up to 60% of what they were pre-pandemic, but we understand that there is progress to be made in other areas.

[Lord Laming (CB)]

My Lords, I wonder whether the Minister realises that he could make himself hugely popular in the country if he could persuade GP practice reception facilities to be more user-friendly and welcoming to the clients.

[Lord Kamall (Con)]

The noble Lord makes an important point, and I can see a lot of agreement, judging by noble Lords’ body language. However, we must always be careful about this issue because patients have had different experiences. I have been speaking to noble Lords about this. Some have told me that it is really good and has gone back to normal; others are having real trouble getting access to a GP or even getting someone to answer a phone in the first place. We must be careful, because if I say, “GPs should be doing more,” I will be criticised for being tough on GPs, but if I say that we must understand that GP practices are under a lot of pressure, I will then be criticised for not pushing hard enough to solve the problem. The pandemic accelerated pre-existing trends. We were already moving more towards the use of technology. Some people were quite happy to contact their GP by phone or online, and we will see some of that. We will never go back to 100% face-to-face, but certainly, patients should be able to have face-to-face appointments unless there are good clinical reasons why they cannot.

Care Workers: Professional Register

Debate between Lord Laming and Lord Kamall

Monday 10th January 2022 Lords Chamber

[Lord Laming (CB)]

My Lords, I am sure the Minister will agree that if the pandemic has taught us anything, it has confirmed that those in need of social care are much more dependent now and much more vulnerable. They require very intensive personal care. That being so, is it not time that we recognised carers for what they are, because apart from their commitment, they display enormous skills, day in and day out, and people at the end of their life are dependent upon them?

[Lord Kamall (Con)]

I am sure all noble Lords will agree with those sentiments, and that is why we have published the White Paper on social care. We are investing an additional £5.4 billion over three years and we want to make sure it is a career that people feel valued in. We also have £3.6 billion to reform the social care charging system, to make sure that all local authorities can move towards paying care providers a fair rate for their care, and a further £1.7 billion to begin major improvements across the whole social care system in England.

HIV and AIDS

Debate between Lord Laming and Lord Kamall

Wednesday 1st December 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Kamall (Con)]

I thank my noble friend for making that very important point and for stressing that this should be seen not just as a gay disease but as a disease that heterosexual and other people also suffer from. One of the issues in the HIV plan has been to ensure that those communities which maybe have a macho approach to a number of these issues are addressed, particularly at the local community level. It is very difficult, and we have to tread carefully, particularly with some of the ethnic minority communities, so that we are not seen to be stigmatising that community or blaming them but getting the right balance. The fundamental point that my noble friend makes is very important and we should repeat it: HIV does not affect only gay people—it also affects heterosexual people and younger communities.

[Lord Laming (CB)]

When coronavirus struck us, within a year, remarkably, a number of vaccines had been produced, to huge effect. Does that not stand in marked contrast to what has happened with HIV/AIDS? Is it not amazing that 20 years after the noble Lord, Lord Fowler, did so much to establish a proper response to HIV/AIDS, we still have do not have the medical support that we need for it? Can the Minister take this back to the department and see what more can be done to improve the situation?

Public Health Grant to Local Authorities

Debate between Lord Laming and Lord Kamall

Tuesday 2nd November 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Kamall (Con)]

It is true that some of the allocation for the National Health Service is being used for public health spending, but we want to make sure that across the health system the NHS not only focuses on prevention and therapeutics but works in partnership with the public health authorities.

[Lord Laming (CB)]

My Lords, the good news is that in the Budget last week, it was announced that local councils are to receive £1.6 billion in grants for each of the next three years. The bad news is that that does not take them close to what the councils were receiving and spending in 2010. Will the Minister do all that he can to press for adequate funding, especially for the public health services but also to meet today’s needs and not those of a decade ago?

[Lord Kamall (Con)]

There are many bodies tackling public health and raising awareness of some of the worst health problems we have—not only the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities and public health officials in local authorities but the NHS, which wants to move more towards prevention because in the long term that saves money.

NHS England Funding: Announcement to Media

Debate between Lord Laming and Lord Kamall

Tuesday 26th October 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Kamall (Con)]

The noble Baroness refers to what she sees as the workforce shortage. The Government are fully committed to supporting our health and care professionals and to making sure that we have the right number of people with the right skills to deliver excellent patient care and support the increased elective activity committed to under Build Back Better: Our Plan for Health and Social Care. The Chancellor will confirm to the House our three-year settlement for wider health budgets at the spending review on Wednesday, which will support the NHS to undertake long-term planning for the workforce and elective recovery. I will write to the noble Baroness on specific staff numbers for A&E.

[Lord Laming (CB)]

I wonder whether the Minister would agree that the NHS cannot succeed without adequate social care. In the last seven days we have had two reports that show just how vulnerable the social care system is. Can the Minister sign up to a new agreement to protect the NHS by supporting social care? That was absent in this statement.

[Lord Kamall (Con)]

I thank the noble Lord for that suggestion. We see social care as incredibly important, which is why we will soon have before the House a health and social care Bill to make sure that we look at both health and social care, from birth all the way through one’s life.